ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 85 



the next five years embrace the largest single collection of American 

 publications, in the National Library, which is attempting to secure 

 every American imprint of possible concern to research. The printed 

 cards of Harvard University, the Boston Public, and the New York 

 Public libraries (copies of which will be on deposit at the National 

 Library) will in large measure supplement the record based upon its 

 own collections. 



In view of these and other sources of information open to the 

 serious investigator, the Carnegie Institution could not, I think, be 

 asked to undertake a national bibliography for the United States. 



{b) Division by subject : The area appropriate to the Carnegie In- 

 stitution will, of course, be that with which the research may be 

 concerned which it is its intention to promote. This is, Science. 

 How far this term extends has not, I believe, as yet been defined. 

 The assumption has been general that preference would be given to 

 the natural and physical sciences. In these the material of most 

 concern to the investigator consists (i) of the current publications, 

 and (2) of the publications of the preceding ten years, or at least of 

 the preceding quarter of a century. 



Current publications are to be covered by the International Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Literature. This catalogue will be based upon 

 contributions from twenty-seven regional bureaus. Were not the 

 Smithsonian already the bureau for the United States, the Carnegie 

 Institution might well become so. No contribution by it to bibli« 

 ography in aid of research could be more appropriate or more useful 

 than this : the territory, the United States ; the subject matter, the 

 natural and physical sciences ; the period, the present and the future. 



Certain sciences are not to be included in the scope of the Inter- 

 national Catalogue. These are the historical, the philosophical, .and 

 the philolog-ical sciences. All applied science is omitted. The cur- 

 rent literature of applied science, engineering, etc. , is fairly repre- 

 sented in the Repertorium der technischeii Journal Litteratur issued 

 by the Patent Ofiice in Berlin, and by less comprehensive indexes in 

 Engli.sh. The current literature of history, of philosophy, and of 

 philology is not, however, satisfactorily cared for by any existing 

 comprehensive bibliographies. An index to the current literature of 

 these sciences, if it could be undertaken by the Carnegie Institution, 

 would be a most important and practical contribution to research. It 

 would complement the International Catalogue. It might presumably 

 be based upon the work of regional bureaus, precisely as is the In- 

 ternational Catalogue, the Carnegie Institution assuming to it the 



